More than 23 million watched Biden’s July 11 news conference, beating the Oscars
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Mr Biden’s nearly hour-long appearance at the Nato summit in Washington was one of the most-watched telecasts of the year.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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WASHINGTON - The swirling questions about US President Joe Biden’s age and mental fitness for office have captured Americans’ attention.
More than 23 million people – a bigger audience than the 2024 Academy Awards – tuned in on July 11 evening to see how Mr Biden handled his first live news conference since a poor performance at June’s debate
The television audience amounted to roughly 45 per cent of the 51.3 million who watched the debate, according to Nielsen.
The President’s nearly hour-long appearance, at the Nato summit in Washington, was one of the most-watched telecasts of the year, outside of sporting events.
It aired across several major TV networks, with ABC, CBS and NBC all pre-empting regular entertainment programming.
Millions more may have watched on digital news sites and social media platforms, which are, for the most part, not captured by Nielsen’s data.
Compared with his predecessors, Mr Biden rarely grants solo news conferences, which added to the novelty of the July 11 event.
Fox News attracted the largest audience of any network, 5.7 million, representing nearly a quarter of the overall television viewership.
ABC was the highest-rated broadcaster, with five million viewers, possibly benefiting from a lead-in from Jeopardy!, the game show that aired immediately before Mr Biden’s news conference.
Roughly four in five viewers were aged 55 or older, Nielsen said. ABC drew the largest audience among adults aged 25 to 54, the key demographic for advertisers in cable news.
Mr Biden’s interview with Mr George Stephanopoulos, which aired on July 5 on ABC, was seen by 8.5 million viewers. NYTIMES
